I've played the PnP a couple times now. Some abilities are better than others, but you definitely get a feeling for differences. For example:

The Paladin moves slowly and typically sticks around base because it is extremely beneficial to use Smite every round to clean up hard-to-reach cultists.

The Ranger tends to explore quickly and usually goes with someone else to pick up the non-green tokens behind her.

The Mage is always looking for the right moment to teleport somewhere to pick up that last token and break an artifact. The mage also feels awesome every round by placing the cultist wherever the heck he feels like, but otherwise weak as he moves around trying to accomplish things on his turn.

Those are the main ones that I remember. I am pretty sure they all have a pretty unique theme and feel. As far as team play goes, it is usually pretty obvious what your role is going to be and you mostly do that with some exceptions as emergencies arise. Mostly everyone goes and explores at least a little bit on their own, but near each other because you're going to have to sweep around at some point and collect your specific type of token that other players have discovered.